Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto

by Chuck Klosterman
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto
book data
11,080 ratings, 3.72 average rating, 1,511 reviews (more data...)
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published
June 22nd 2004 (first published 2003) by Scribner

binding
Paperback, 272 pages

isbn
0743236017    (isbn13: 9780743236010)

description
There's quite a bit of intelligent analysis and thought-provoking insight packed into the pages of Chuck Klosterman's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, whi...more




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Jen
09/26/07
Jen rated it: 3 of 5 stars

Read in December, 2007
Recommended for: English majors who like to play deconstruction, hipsters who used to make mix tapes,anyone who knows of Lloyd Dobbler, guys who are really into music and didn't get laid until college, the girls who love them


Forgive me for what I'm about to do. I'm really not a complete curmudgeon, and I feel nefarious for the review I'm about to give, mostly because everyone I know likes this book, but I simply can't promote all of these essays as refreshingly creative and br...more
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  4 comments

lauren
03/06/07
lauren rated it: 4 of 5 stars

No woman will ever satisfy me. I know that now, and I would never try to deny it. But this is actually okay, because I will never satisfy a woman, either.

Should I be writing such thoughts? Perhaps not. Perhaps it's a bad idea. I can definitely foresee a scenario where that first paragraph could come back to haunt me, especially if I somehow became marginally famous. If I become marginally famous, I will undoubtedly be interviewed by someone in the media, and the interviewer will ine...more
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Antisocialite
Read in July, 2007
If I met Chuck Klosterman, I would probably end up attempting to pick a fistfight with him. I say "attempting" because I don't know whether he hits girls. And I say "probably" because, for all I know, he may be far less infuriating in person than he is in print.

A lot of space in this book is aimed at mocking the pretensions of people who, I admit, sound an awful lot like me: decently-educated, irony-clad, pop-culture obsessed twentysomethings who deride popular co...more
Like this review?   yes   (7 people liked it)
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Matt
01/31/08
Matt rated it: 2 of 5 stars

recommends it for: wannabee hipsters, people who liked 'juno.'
this is exactly the kind of book so-called hipsters cling to, namedrop, and reference when they gather together dressed in their bright eyes t-shirts, black-rimmed glasses, jeans, and chuck taylors. you know the type, the 'i'm-cooler-than-you-are-because-my-tastes-are-better-than-yours.' you know who i'm talking about? good. continue.

what initially drove me to read this book was his opening 'essay' in which chuck klosterman refers to coldplay as a facsimile of travis who was a facsi...more
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  10 comments

Daniel
03/13/08
Daniel rated it: 2 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2008
When I was in college, one of my professors assigned a book that used bridge, a card game he apparently loved, to illustrate the principles of sociology. I found the book, which he had written, to be a waste of time and was annoyed that he made us buy and read it. At the end of the semester, we had to write a paper that applied sociological theories to something in American culture we were interested in. So, in an attempt to mock the professor, I focused my paper on several children's cartoons i...more
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Alana
07/11/08
Alana rated it: 3 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2008july, book-club, reviewed
Read in July, 2008
It's not that I didn't like this book... Okay, that's exactly what it is. But the real issue I had with Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is this: I've either had every conversation in this book (which I enjoyed more than these essay versions of them) or I've walked away from the conversation because it didn't interest me in the slightest. I can name at least ten people I know who could have written this book (give or take an article or two), and probably could have written it better (including the...more
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  1 comment

Kristen
12/26/07
Kristen rated it: 2 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2008
Klosterman was recommended to me by a friend, and while I'll admit he has some funny bits, he really is that guy at the party who is exceedingly nerdy (in a hipster sort of way) and who thinks he's clearly better than everyone else. And no one -- no one -- should devote the amount of time and attention to pop culture that he does. And this is coming from a girl who gets a regular dose of Perez Hilton every week. I'm his target audience, and yet he still turned me off. He critiques pop culture at...more
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Tess
01/28/08
Tess rated it: 1 of 5 stars

Read in January, 2008
This book was a total waste of time. As a huge fan of philosophy, my breaking point was only by page 20. I thought, this whole book can't be THAT bad...so I flipped around and read snippets from later chapters to make sure I wasn't selling it short. But alas, no, this was truly a masterpiece of crap. Its just some hipster-type asshole, who thinks he's got it all figured out, and says things like, "If you define your personality as 'creative,' it only means you understand what is PERCEIV...more
Like this review?   yes   (3 people liked it)
  2 comments

Diana Jou
10/10/07
Diana Jou rated it: 1 of 5 stars

Read in October, 2007
Anything that calls itself a "low culture manifesto" is really one of two things; 1) an emotional teenager trying to write his/her first novel 2) a middle age man trying to remember the carefree days of his youth.

The chapters are organized like a "cd mix tape" complete with arbitrary lengths of time. They even included a picture of a cd and jewel case to ingrain it in your brain.

I read chapter one, "This is Emo 0:01" and that was too much al...more
Like this review?   yes   (4 people liked it)
  1 comment

Jessica
04/06/08
Jessica rated it: 1 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2008
as i just said in an email to james:

i knocked out sex drugs and cocoa puffs by chuck klosterman in a few hours last night, and i gotta tell you, i fear for the world when i think of how many kids i know list this book or its author as an all-time favorite on facebook. this guy is a turd, and people are clearly confusing his wit with intellect.

so yeah.
frustratingly surface, misogynistic, hipster cynicism b.s. if you ask me.
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Brynn
08/09/07
Brynn rated it: 4 of 5 stars

bookshelves: penn
Read in February, 2007
"There are two ways to look at life. The first view is that nothing stays the same and that nothing is inherently connected, and that the only driving force in anyone's life is entropy. The second is that everything pretty much stays the same (more or less) and that everything is completely connected, even if we don't realize it."

"In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever 'in and of itself'".

"There's not a lo...more
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Barrett
08/14/07
Barrett rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in March, 2008
a nice little collection of essays covering everything from the Sims, why the Lakers / Celtics conflict can apply to everything in life, the Real World, and Saved by the Bell. Chuck has a pretty sharp little wit; i definitely snickered through most of the book (which made for some awkward looks on the metro). i think my only critique would be the novelty of his writing style started to wear off by the end of the book, but overall, a good read.

definitely a fan of the section on why J...more
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  3 comments

Trin
01/10/09
Trin rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in April, 2007
Another reread, mostly because a story about Klosterman being friends with three people who were acquainted with serial killers that I thought was in Killing Yourself to Live was in fact not in that book, but this one. (I wanted to make sure I wasn't crazy and imagining the whole thing. I'm not, though Robert Graysmith's little obsession seems to be somewhat contagious, dammit.)

ANYWAY (and there I go again)...I've already said a lot about Klosterman in various reviews of his books, and...more
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Liz
07/08/08
Liz rated it: 1 of 5 stars

bookshelves: non-fiction, utter-shite
many many people told me i would love this book and they were very wrong. chuck klosterman is a glorified blogger, not a writer. and certainly not "the voice of a generation" as corporate magazines gq and spin would have me believe.

don't believe the hype.

chuck, the girl didn't dump you cause you weren't john cusack. the girl dumped you because you are a douchebag.
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Alegria
08/27/08
Alegria rated it: 1 of 5 stars

I know I'm supposed to be won over by Chuck Klosterman's supposedly keen and cutting insight into pop culture and therefore the modern human experience, but I really just felt like I was at a really dull party and cornered by some annoyingly pseudo-intellectual guy whose sole enjoyment is to contradict and mock anything anyone says just to hear himself talk.
Like this review?   yes   (3 people liked it)
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Ofmatt
11/01/08
Ofmatt rated it: 2 of 5 stars

bookshelves: 2008, essays, reviewed
Read in December, 2008
recommended to Ofmatt by: Kenny, who would argue for a higher rating... without success.
recommends it for: someone who doesn't take pop culture too seriously
Skimming the reviews, I must say I agree with someone's comment that Klosterman is more of a blogger than a writer (at least if judged by this effort), but for a collection of essays on pop culture, that doesn't seem to be a very crucial distinction. With Internet culture overflowing into the day-to-day life of most Americans, it shouldn't come as a shock to find it reflected in contemporary writing; besides, sometimes a decent blogger is preferable to a boring writer. That isn't to say that I w...more
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Archie
12/11/08
Archie rated it: 5 of 5 stars

Read in November, 2006
This is the first Chuck Klosterman book I have ever read. I saw Seth Cohen reading it on "The O.C." and decided to check it out. I was not disappointed.

It a series of ridiculous, highly pretentious, yet, very well-written essays on pop-culture. There really is no other way to describe it. If you want to laugh about inconsequential subject matter, such as "Saved by the Bell," then please read this book.

Here is a complete list of chapters (essays) that ...more
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Marcus
08/19/08
Marcus rated it: 2 of 5 stars

This book started out great...nice and insightful...As it progressed, however, I've found myself removing stars from the rating.

He tries too hard to tie everything up in a neat little bow...every essay has to end with a witty little wrap-up sentence, dripping with a false poignancy, essentially wrapping it up with his original statement. It started feeling as formulaic as pop music.

It was when I got to Toby vs Moby that I found myself closing the book, and throwing it a...more
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Justine
09/05/07
Justine rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in February, 2008
So Klosterman is cited as a favorite writer by several people who I respect a lot and Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs was a delightful read in kind of a trashy way. It's billed as a "low culture manifesto"-- so I guess that's okay.

The book is structured as a series of unconnected essays all about pop culture things. His voice is similar to that of David Foster Wallace, but in general, h is less intellectual, (I would argue less insightful), and a little darker. While Wallace...more
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Michelle
09/02/07
Michelle rated it: 4 of 5 stars

Read in September, 2007
Chuck Klosterman reminds me of a friend I had throughout high school and into college and still encounter during the occassional "reunion-type" gathering. We don't often talk about religion, politics, or even really what we've been doing with our lives since we last saw one another... save for the recent movies we've seen, what's being played on the radio, or the latest Geico commercial.

Like with that friend, I don't always "get" every reference that Chuck makes....more
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Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs : A Low Culture Manifesto (Hardcover)
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs : A Low Culture Manifesto (Audio CD)
Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto (Paperback)
Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto (Unknown Binding)
Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs (Kindle Edition)







quotes from this book

"Every one of Joel's important songs--including the happy ones--are ultimately about loneliness. And it's not 'clever lonely' (like Morrissey) or 'interesting lonely' (like Radiohead); it's 'lonely lonely,' like the way it feels when you're being hugged by someone and it somehow makes you sadder." More quotes...


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